Graphics and sound

Expectations were high for RAGE, it’s development had been a long time coming and ID had been quite vocal about what to expect.  People’s expectations were raised further when it came to light that RAGE would be shipping on three DVD’s for the PC and Xbox versions of the game (and a single Bluray for the PS3).  Even the Steam version is over 20GB in size, which is a lot for any game at the moment.

When you play the game it’s obvious why the installation size is so big; it’s stunning.

Graphically, I haven’t seen many games that are in the same league as this one.  Textures are beautifully rendered and character animations are flawless.  There have been some performance issues with the PC version, these seem to be isolated mostly to users with ATI graphics cards, with ID promising to work with ATI on improved drivers.

On initial release, there were issues on the PC version with textures taking a long time to buffer, the result was the world being plunged into a low-level of detail when the player spins around too quickly.  It wasn’t long before a patch was released to help fix this, by allowing PC users greater control over their graphics settings.

ID have also done a great job of incorporating sound into RAGE.  In the townships there’s a lot of background noise to keep you interested.  Townsfolk will talk to you and each other as you pas through.  ID have clearly spent a lot of time scripting the characters, with few uttering the same phrases twice.

In action scenes, you’ll probably hear the bad guys before you see them, sound is used to great effect to both assist and terrify you, depending on the situation.

All this adds up to a great playing experience, at times you’ll find yourself well and truly immersed in the game, to the point where a tap on the shoulder from a friend results in a very un-manly yelp… once.

 

Conclusions

While it may not be the shooter that some people expected, RAGE is still a great title.  The environment graphics and character modelling are of a level that have rarely been seen before, and the story itself is pretty enthralling, if a little tried and tested.

Unfortunately, RAGE does have its flaws.  Performance on the PC version has been hampered by poor driver support for ATI cards, while the console versions suffer as much as any first person shooter does when using a control pad.

That being said, on the whole it’s still a pretty decent effort from the originators of the modern first person shooter.  Perhaps a bit more polish could have been given to some areas, but that shouldn’t stop you buying it.

RAGE is available now on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360.